Pictures of Planting Lotus

Use a container that is shallow and wide. Dwarf varieties, such as ‘Chawan Basu’ and ‘Momo Botan’ should be planted in containers at least 24 inches in diameter with a depth of 10-12 inches. Your regular size lotus do best in containers that are 3 feet in diameter. Planting lotus in smaller containers crowds them, resulting in fewer or no blooms.

Place clay soil into your pot. You want to put about 5 inches of dirt into your pot. Any more dirt in the container is unnecessary and may result in the container being too heavy to move. Then place the lotus tuber on top of the dirt with the cut edge of the rhizome against the edge of the pot.

Next take a flat rock and place it on top of the tuber. It isn’t necessary to put dirt on top of the tuber. It will grow down into the dirt. The rock just keeps it positioned and keeps it from floating to the top of the container. You would next add about 2-3 inches of water to cover the tuber. Keep the container in a warm sunny location as the plant establishes itself. You will need to add water to compensate for evaporation as necessary. Once the lotus has produced several leaves, a shallow layer of soil may be added to cover the tuber, but isn’t necessary. You want to be careful so you don’t break the growing tip. At this point you can add a small gravel topping if desired.

Once the lotus has several leaves you can begin to lower it into your pond making sure you don’t put the leaves under water. Eventually getting the container to the depth you want it. You can be quite successful growing a lotus in the container sitting on your porch or deck without putting it in a pond. Just make sure you keep adding water as it evaporates.

2 thoughts on “Pictures of Planting Lotus”

I just recently installed a 3000 gal pond, it’s running and I have a few plants in there and a few gold fish to condition the water, anyways my Fiance’ wanted a Lotus so I ordered your surprise lotus, well I received it and I have been learning about how to plant it & grow it, after finding out some things about the Lotus(very tricky plant), I guess I need to know for what size it is, small, medium, or large so I know how big of a container I need. Even though it’s a surprise color and breed could you let me know what size it is???
Thank you, Jim Post

Go for a medium size container. You want at least a 5 gallon, solid container to give the lotus plenty of room to grow. It doesn’t have to be deep because a lotus doesn’t need much depth. We sell one that is a 5 gallon, and the dimensions are 20″x6″ that is perfect for any lotus.